Once Again
by 9r7g5h
Summary: Because, once again, it was beginning.


**AN:** Another fanfiction for XXXHolic. :) I hope that you enjoy this!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own XXXHolic. Clamp does.

* * *

"The payment has been received, and so the wish must be granted."

For a long, heart stopping moment, Watanuki found himself staring at the woman before him with wide eyes, the words that had just fallen from her lips stunning him into silence. It had only been moments ago that he had been cleaning the empty shop, under the impression that his employer had run out for the day to grant a wish. Her sudden appearance had startled him, that was all, and it was only a second later that he had recovered, raising an eyebrow in recognition of what Yuuko had just said.

"You've been gone all day," was his reply to her cryptic statement, knowing that, eventually, the Dimensional Witch would explain herself if she so saw fit. If not, as he had long since learned, then the situation had no use for him, and it would be better for them all if he stayed out of it. "If you're hungry, I made some beef soba, and there's some beer in the frig-"

"The payment has been received, and so the wish must be granted, Watanuki."

"You already said that Yuuko," Watanuki said after biting back a groan, knowing now that keeping his head down would be impossible until the woman before him had had her say. Putting down the bag that he had picked up, shrugging his jacket from his shoulders, it was with a small sigh that he prepared to remain for the rest of the night, or at least until this job was done. Knowing Yuuko, it would be whichever kept him under her control for the longest, for without a doubt she would want to celebrate a successful task well done. Most likely with something alcoholic. "Whose wish needs to be granted now, Yuuko," he asked, mentally preparing himself for whatever quest she needed him to complete. For a moment, he thought about calling Domeki, for as much as he hated the jerk, he had been helpful in getting out of some tight spots in the past. Shaking his head and deciding that he would cross that bridge if he came to it, it was with an air of determination that he waited for his answer.

It was not the one he had been expecting.

"Yours, Watanuki. I have received payment equal to the cost of your wish, and now I must grant you your release. After today, you are free to go."

"Heh, very funny Yuuko," Watanuki laughed after an instant, a small smile crossing his face at the thought. He had long since resigned himself to the fact that he would be serving the witch for the rest of his life to pay for a wish that he no longer desired, and he was actually okay with that. What might have once bugged him about the life he lived now tended to sooth him, for the knowledge that there were creatures out there that wanted nothing more than to see peace within their world calmed him. "We both know that's never going to happen. Now seriously, what errand do you need me to run this time to grant someone else's wish?"

Nothing. The moment Watanuki had finished speaking, he had been expecting some witty come back about how he was destined to be her slave until he died, about how he had better get used to his lot in life while getting out a drink for her and the little black pork bun to share. However, what he had been expecting was not what he received. Silence was the only response he was given to his question, and all it took was one look in her eyes to see what it was that he needed to see.

"No." Stumbling away from her, as if he could outrun the magical embrace that he knew was to come any moment, a hiss of pain passed between his teeth as his back hit the edge of the wall, pulling his panic flee to a halt. "No, Yuuko, I no longer wish for this. I take back my first wish, and have decided to wish for another."

"You know it doesn't work like that, Watanuki," Yuuko said softly, her hands reaching out to cradle his face between her palms as she spoke. "The hours you have paid have been for the sole purpose of granting this wish, and there is nothing you or I can do to stop it. The payment has been received, and so the wish must be granted."

"Stop saying that," Watanuki yelled as he pulled away, reaching out to grab the things that he had just placed by the door. "There'll be no wish granted, because I don't have one anymore. I'll see you tomorrow, Yuuko," he almost snarled as he rushed out the door, hoping almost against hope that, perhaps, if he could escape quick enough, the inevitable would never happen. He would keep his powers, keep his job, and keep his life the very same.

The next morning, when nothing more than an empty lot met his gaze as he walked to school, the smallest part of him, the part that had been whispering the truth to him throughout the night, couldn't help but speak up once more as the tears began to blur his vision.

_'It's too late.'_

* * *

"Maru and Moro miss Watanuki," Mokona said with a sigh as he drank his sake, his eye fixed upon the rising moon as it sailed overhead, "as does Mokona."

"As do I, Mokona, as do I."

In the six months since his wish had been granted, the shop had been quiet for Yuuko, her former steady stream of customers returning to its former level of activity: very little. The days had begun to blur in a steady rate of nothing, the hours once again beginning to return to the slide that had been her life before. The only difference way that, this time, for perhaps the first time in her long, endless life, she was lonely. Despite the three that shared the shop with her, there was lacking a certain amount of life that had been once been there. Draining her cup, it was with a deep breath that she forced herself to rise, the small bell that she had tied above her door chiming to inform her of her latest customer.

The moment she saw his face, the air rushed from her lungs, leaving her breathless as she wondered one single thing: how?

"Hello, Yuuko," Watanuki said softly, the small, triumphant smile on his face as he looked around at the shop growing fond as familiar sights jumped out at him. "I have a wish I would like to make, and I've finally found the place to do it."

"You'll have to pay the price," Yuuko replied quietly, forcing her racing heart to soften its pounding against her chest so that she could hear what her client was saying. Biting her tongue to keep the questions that had been racing through her mind silent, it was with a blank face that she continued. "But you already know that, don't you, Watanuki?"

"I want my powers back," he said with a shrug, as if her words meant nothing to him, "and I'll be willing to pay anything to get them."

"I thought that I'd have taught you by now to never say those words, Watanuki," Yuuko said with a grin as the young man made his way once again towards the closet that held the apron and broom that had been sitting still for the past six months. "The price I ask for might just be too much for you to pay."

"But it won't," he replied with a smile, a true happiness that had been missing for the last six months finally returning to his eyes. "Because I also have a second wish, and my payment will help fulfill them both."

"Oh," Yuuko asked with a raise of her eyebrow, a smaller wave of surprise shocking her system as it raced through, "and what would this other wish be?"

"To spend the rest of eternity with you. Beef soba and sake?"

"Yes," was all she said, but both knew that it meant so much more than they ever could say, for in that word was everything they ever could have wished.


End file.
